It is done by wrapping the eggs in onion skins before boiling. Thos are the brown, amber and yellow ones. The pink/purple/red ones are already peeled in the photos, and they are done by cracking the shells of previously hard boiled eggs all over, sort of crunching them gently without peeling and then soaking in tea (or in my case, beet juice) for about an hour and then peeling.

I usually place ferns and flowers and leaves on my eggs, wrap them tightly in cheesecloth or old other thin fabric scraps (nylons work really well) and then boil them in coffee, tea, beet juice, or water with red cabbage and they come out beautifully. I was thinking of making an instructable in time for easter this year and while looking to be sure it was not already here I found the fabulous onion peel instructable!

Here's my results. Not too shabby for a first try done in a hurry, if I do say so myself. Thanks to the authors for the great instructables!

I've never tried this, but it just occurred to me -- If you made lots and lots of little tiny piercings in the peeled egg, and then dipped it in beet juice, food coloring or whatever, you should get a lightly colored egg covered with lots of darker spots where the dye seeps in. To make it easy, I'd probably try using something like those little wire brushes they sell in hardware stores for cleaning copper pipe ... or one of those wire brushes they use for cleaning auto battery terminals. Obviously you'd go spend a couple of bucks for a NEW wire brush, not just grab the one from your workshop. I can't even imagine the horrors possible from using some scruffy old used tool with acid, etc., all over it. Just half a thought ... sometimes they're the only ones I have.

Those beet-colored eggs are really neat. I commented in the other Instructable about how to make pickled eggs with beet juice and leftover pickle brine, and thought the purple might come thru on eggshells, too. It never occurred to me to crackle the eggshells and get that neat texture, though. That technique would probably work great with other "highly-staining" foods like mustard, or tomato, or cranberry, too. Though it'd probably be a lot simpler just to use food coloring on "crackled" eggs. Nice job !